EDITORIAL: No matter the arresting agency, arrests records should be open to the public

Wednesday

Feb 20, 2013 at 12:01 AMFeb 20, 2013 at 6:41 PM

The North Carolina Supreme Court is now weighing an issue stemming from an Elon University matter that will have a ripple effect on every private college in the state with a campus police department. Must law enforcement at private colleges be as open with arrest and other records as their law enforcement counterparts in counties, cities and towns?

While the court has yet to reach its decision, we argue, yes. In fact, we argue absolutely yes.

The issue was raised initially in 2010 by an Elon student and reporter for Phoenix TV, the campus television station. Nick Ochsner sought the arrest record of a student charged with underage drinking and resisting an officer. What Ochsner received in a return from university police was a bare bones document with details removed — or not released — concerning how the arrest was made. There was no mention of any possible chase involving campus police and the student or what circumstances led to a charge of resisting arrest.

When Ochsner asked for clarity he was told campus police were not required to provide anything else. The university contended it was exempt from state public records laws as a private entity.

Ochsner has waged this legal battle ever since.

We find ourselves in agreement with Ochsner’s attorney, who happens to be his mother. Ann Ochsner argued before the court last week that nothing better describes government power than the lawful authority to arrest someone.

We couldn’t express it better.

“If an entity or a person commissioned by statute has the power of arrest, then all the records related to that would become public records,” Ann Ochsner told the Supreme Court, the Associated Press reported.

From our position, this is the essence of the argument. No one in North Carolina with the authority to charge or arrest someone should have powers greater than another in a similar job in the public sector. By giving private entities the ability to file charges, make arrests or conduct searches and seizures, those agencies must be held accountable by allowing public inspection of records regarding those actions. Otherwise, a secret police force is created with seemingly unlimited authority that can never be challenged.

Private campus police were given the ability to enforce laws and investigate crimes by state law in 2005. To maintain law and order on sites where youthful indiscretions aren’t uncommon, such authority is perhaps necessary. So far, 16 of North Carolina’s 36 private colleges have their own police departments.

But it should be handled with great care and under the same provisions local government must maintain. Justice Paul Newby stated during oral arguments, “These are very special and unique governmental activities” now handed to private universities.